Aftermath
by CrimsonGear
Summary: The party's over, everyone's safe and healing. And yet Reim gets to stay out of bed while Break is confined to his room. Still at least the man can entertain himself.


Set a couple of week's after Isla Yura's party. My muse attacked me with this rather cute idea~

Also, yeah I'm using Reim here not Liam... but meh I'll most likely use both, just not in the same fic of course!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pandora Hearts, if I did Break would be the main character and Gil would have a bigger back bone - well, til Alice crushes it anyway...

* * *

Reim did a double take when he went to visit Break that morning. Hurriedly, Reim removed and cleaned his glasses, Break looking up and raising an eyebrow at him.

"Reim-san… is something the matter?" Placing his spectacles back in their rightful place, Reim noted he hadn't imagined it.

"Break… You… You're not reading are you?" Reim said slowly, not sure how to phrase the sentence, he wasn't all that sure why the idea of his friend reading bothered him… well other than the now almost blind man seeming engrossed in whatever was printed on the page. _Picture book. Has to be._ He thought, knowing how childish the thought was.

"Well Reim, I know this might shock you, but just because I often have the mental age of a five year-old doesn't mean I possess the same literary skills." Break's tone was full of amused sarcasm, the book he'd been reading was closed on his lap, a scrap of what Reim swore was Pandora paperwork was being used to mark the page.

"But Break…" Reim struggled with the words, his friend just sat quietly in his bed, lips turning in the beginnings of a smirk.

"Yes Reim?"

"It's just me in here… why are you pretending to read?" At this Break looked half surprised and half offended. "Xerx?" Reim tried, confused about how that look came onto his friend's face.

"I'm aware it's 'just you', but I wasn't pretending."

"So wait then… can you…?"

Break sighed and handed the book to Reim, "Just see for yourself."

"… Xerx. These pages are blank." Reim said as he flicked through the book, almost certain that even when confined to bed rest Break had been able to prepare some horrid joke.

With a roll of his eye, Break had seized Reim's hand and lightly pressed the younger's index finger along the page. "Feel that?" He asked as he felt Reim jolt when his finger touched the ridges on the page.

"B… Braille?"

Break nodded, "You probably didn't see it before since your spares aren't strong enough." Break said triumphantly, referring to Reim's glasses. True, his spare pair was weaker, but they were better than the cracked pair he'd had to throw away after returning to the Barma mansion after Isla Yura's party.

I didn't know you could read Braille." Reim said, watching as Break took the book back, flicking through parts he had already read.

"I learned from my grandmother when I was very young. Her sight was horrible and at the time the books she'd buy were so intriguing I asked her to teach me how." Break chuckled to himself, "I used to love sending letters to her and getting them back, it was sort of like a secret code for just the two of us."

Reim just stared, it was very rare for Break to mention his family at all, or anything from before he fell out of Abyss for that matter. When he did though, his face took on a rare look, an emotion that Reim could never place; somewhere between longing and contentment was the best he got.

"Do you miss her?" Reim was always careful about speaking whenever Break mentioned things from before Abyss, usually the spell would break seconds after he'd say something, but the look on Break's face always compelled him to say something.

"Of course I do." Break said, a harsh tone to his voice that let Reim know he'd messed up the moment. Again. "Perhaps I'll go see her when everyone stops treating me like glass…"

As Break trailed off Reim looked at him, the question mark practically visible on his face. "Eh? She'd be dead though right?"

Against his will, a chuckle escaped Break's lips, "She is. That doesn't mean I can't go to her grave though." At the breath Reim released Break chuckled again, "Honestly, and people are always saying how bright and insightful you are."

"You were going to kill yourself if Gilbert-sama hadn't stopped you."

"Doesn't mean I wasn't feeling remorse at the time." Break said, his tone marking the end of the conversation topic.

"Put your finger here." Noting Break's speech had returned to how it usually was, though lacking the ridiculous sugary tone, Reim complied.

"Roll your finger over it." Break said, putting his own finger in the way to show where Reim should stop.

"So what does it mean?" Reim said, frowning at the words. Break had been making him guess for the best part of several minutes and Reim still had no clue.

Break smiled at the frustrated tone, "You know those words I hate saying?"

"Which, there's a lot. 'Dentures'?" Reim tried, knowing it was most likely wrong.

Biting back a laugh, Break closed the book and took Reim finger again, this time drawing out the words in English characters.

"I… m… s…" Reim said, calling out the letters to make sure he wasn't getting it wrong.

"…'I'm sorry'?" Reim looked up at Break.

"That's what it says."

After a few moments blinking, Reim pouted and crossed his arms, "You have a really bad way of apologizing."

"I know." Break said, smiling softly.

* * *

Arg! I hate the ending! Ah well... maybe a Break/Reim sidestory would cheer me up... *is attacked by more plot bunnies*

*Edit* Well I changed the ending a bit... I think it looks better now.

Reviews are welcome and make me write - seriously they do, it just might not be what you were wanting i.e. writing new fics instead of updating others...


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